Paw-paw comes to visit

Dave the frog's release is coming soon! Stay tuned! (Read: Earl stole my charger for the camera the pics of the release are on...)
Moving on...

Paw-paw came to visit!!! Oh what fun! We got to spend an entire weekend with him, and had some serious fun. He flew in early Friday afternoon. Earl was supposed to be flying in from London later that night to join in the festivities, but his plane was late. Like...beyond late. (That's a post I have absolutely no energy to write out...you'll have to dig that one outta my brain when I get to heaven someday) So anyway...Earl ended up staying the night in D.C. and flying in on Saturday afternoon instead. In the meantime, the kids and I got Paw-paw all to ourselves. He came bearing gifts. Grandma always arrived with lots of toys and goodies when she came to visit, so Paw-paw wanted to carry on the tradition. He brought Grace a Barbie Mermaid swimming thingy/toy that goes in the bathtub. She loved it. He hit a home run with that one. And for Sam he brought this...

An Elmo shape sorter/mailbox. He loves it. And he learned a new word (bonus!)..."mail? mail? mail?" What is it about that little annoying red monster? Sam is over the moon about him.


Then we went here...

Fritz's--AKA in our family "The Railroad Train restaurant" It's a really fun place to go. Family-friendly (meaning your child can scream at the top. of. his. lungs....and no one even looks up from their plate)...the food isn't great, but the atmosphere makes up for that. Food is delivered to your table via a TRAIN! No really!!! It's tough to explain...google it...or better yet, come visit and we'll take you!
Too bad these kids don't like their Paw-paw...

Oh...and did I mention?...you get free conductor hats...FAH-Reeeeee. Love it.

Oh and P.S....They're milkshakes? They "bring all the boys to the yard"...they are that good. Just ask Sam.

After a healthy meal of onion rings and milkshakes we went to the "Dinosaurs Unearthed" exhibit downtown. Grace was pretty apprehensive at first. She thought the dinosaurs were real. But after much convincing from mom and dad that they were, in fact, just big "robots"...she warmed up...obviously...

She even got to hold a real-but-the-rest-of-the-dinosaur-is-dead-so-now-it's-really-just-a-rock Anklosaurus spike...

And Earl tried to feed our youngest offspring to the animatronic lizard...great. Note Earl's smile...he thought it was just hilarious. Sam? Not so much.

Then we went to my least favorite place of the entire day. This train/freight bridge. It was a serious combination of heights and closed in spaces that my claustrophobic/scared of heights self just couldn't stomach. I took LOTS of pictures to keep from hurling. The minute I looked up from the camera it was either run or lose my milkshake. I wasn't about to loose the milkshake. And I didn't want to leave the rest of the group. So I snapped and snapped and snapped...just know you're lucky that you only have to see a few of the pictures from that freaky bridge.

Sam LOVED it! I guess he inheirted Earl's adventurous spirit because he thought it was GREAT fun to climb the side of the bridge. Fan-stinkin'-tastic.
He also thought it was entertaining to run up and down, up and down, up and down the bridge walkway. Ummm...yah...EARL! Go git the BABY!!!!!

The weekend went to quickly. Monday morning came and Paw-paw had to board a plane back to the great state of Texas. We love you Paw-paw. Thanks for everything. We'll see you very soon.